Saturday, 18 April 2015

Women in Testing who Keynote

There has been a lot of discussion recently about women keynote speakers at testing conferences. If you haven't been following along, here are some of excellent and thought-provoking opinion pieces that have been published on this topic:

As a woman, I like to see women in keynote speaking roles. I feel they are more likely to speak about experiences that I can relate to. I like to hear from my role models in the community. I feel that having women keynote speakers sets the tone of the conference as clearly welcoming for women attendees, which improves my networking experiences.

As a conference organiser, I know it can be hard to find speakers outside of our own professional network. Because we tend to feel most comfortable with people like us, our professional networks tend to contain a high proportion of people like us. If we only utilise our networks to select keynote speakers we are likely to end up with a set of speakers that is not very diverse. And I'm not just speaking about gender diversity, or simply physical diversity, but also diversity of ideas.

That said, I feel some sympathy for organisers who feel they don't know who to ask. I wanted to do something practical to help. So I've compiled a list women who are experienced speakers, many who have delivered previous keynotes, to consider for keynote positions at your next testing conference.

I have tried to offer suggestions from around the world. If these women are unavailable, or you feel that they aren't suited to your conference, they are still likely to have a network from which they could suggest other awesome women in their region. Get in touch with them to expand your horizons and those of your conference attendees.

If you are not a conference organiser but you would like to hear from these women, you could suggest them as a speakers to your local conference convener or organising panel. Be proactive. Create the change that you want to see.

Don't tell me that there are no fantastic women in testing who can keynote at your event.